Shawdesh desk:

Today is the 3rd death anniversary of legendary folk singer and composer Bari Siddiqui.

The popular singer-songwriter, flutist and folk musician of the country died on November 24 in 2017.

Bari Siddiqui got his formal vocal training at the age of 12 from Gopal Dutt of Netrokona. Since 1981, Bari Siddiqui took lessons for six years from Ustad Aminur Rahman. Later, he got professional tutelage from V G Karnaad in Pune, India.

He studied his intermediate at Netrakona Govt College and earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Dhaka.

Siddiqui made his first appearance on television in 1995 through a musical programme named ‘Ronger Baroi’ produced by Humayun Ahmed. Afterwards, he came to the mainstream by singing and directing playback songs in Humayun’s film ‘Srabon Megher Din’.

He also attended the World Flute Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1999. His songs mainly featured pain, love, human life, and existence. Siddiqui voiced around 160 tracks during his career and released a folk album titled ‘Lokhkho Tara’ in April 2000. Some of his albums are ‘Matir Deho’, ‘Mone Boro Jala’, ‘Matir Malikana’.

Siddiqui was awarded the Bachsas Award for the song ‘Showa Chan Pakhi’.

To continue the Baul tradition in music, Siddiqui established a Baul music research centre named ‘Baul Bari,’ near his home village in Netrokona.